Firefighters to help Japan rescue

A Los Angeles County Fire Department search and rescue team will travel to northern Japan to rescue and recover victims of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, officials announced Friday.

It was not immediately clear how many firefighters stationed in the Santa Clarita Valley would be traveling to Japan. Members of the task force include specially trained emergency-room physicians, hazardous material technicians and structural engineers.

News of the task force’s deployment to Japan comes less than 24 hours after they arrived in the United States after returning from New Zealand where in February a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the city of Christchurch, killing thousands of people.